


Too Late To Say Goodbye

by dreaminq



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, F/M, M/M, Missing Persons, Schizophrenia, Supervillains, jeremy is sad, rich and jenna are loyal to michael, the squip is a shit, uhhh michael isnt dead
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-13
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-16 15:52:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12345828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreaminq/pseuds/dreaminq
Summary: "All the teen could hear was ringing, and that warped, terrifying screen. Black and green black and green and black and green and that’s all he saw. He couldn’t even feel his friends grabbing his arms and pulling him away, panicked shouts coming from behind him as he stood, frozen in spot. Nothing was processing. Nothing was right.Everything was wrong. Everything went wrong. Michael Mell was gone."———A few months after the Squip was defeated, the Squip Squad have a small project. The Reality Code. Reality could all very well be just a simple, digital work, right? Why not try to alter that reality with a few console commands? Nothing would go wrong, right...?Nearly three years after the Reality Code incident takes place, a trio of supervillains appears in the city. It's not certain what they're after, but a band of superheroes are prepared to stop them... Whatever their plans are.How long will it take for them to realize they all once knew each other? That they're being crossed by someone within their ranks? That Michael may not be DEAD?Long enough for some villains to get up to fairly nasty things.





	1. "Baby Don't You Play With Fire"

Jeremy stared at the screen in front of him, frantic lines of code running down it, constantly changing and altering. He blinked. Everything went so wrong. The wind and rain from the storm buffeted him and he kept pushing his wet hair out of his face. What were the chances of this? The chances that he would be touching it the moment that the lightning struck the electronics? The teen kept going over the scene in his mind.

The pained screams, the terrifying shocks of electricity, the way he had gazed up at Jeremy, as if pleading for him to help, for him to get it to stop. He couldn’t. He could only stand and watch as his best friend disappeared before his eyes, dissolving into small groups of pixels, ceasing to exist as if he’d never even been there in there in the first place.

All the teen could hear was ringing, and that warped, terrifying screen. Black and green black and green and black and green and that’s all he saw. He couldn’t even feel his friends grabbing his arms and pulling him away, panicked shouts coming from behind him as he stood, frozen in spot. Nothing was processing. Nothing was right.

Everything was wrong. Everything went wrong. Michael Mell was gone.

———

“Jeremy!” Michael yelled, calling his friend over to their lunch table. The cafeteria was usually fairly full by this point, other teens crowding around to get their food and move over to sit by their friends. He was instantly nudged in the side by the boy sitting next to him.

“What, you bringin' Mr. Punkman over here, dude?” He snorted, looking up at Michael with a snort. Rich was a pretty great dude, even if he’s usually thought of as a bully and shit. When you really get to know him, he’ll be one of the best friends you could ever have. Quickly, Michael retorted with an equal smirk, saying, “So you’re tellin' me that you’re not Mr. Punkman?” Rich let out a shocked gasp.

“Never! How DARE you accuse me of that!” He yelled, slamming his hands down on the table. “Accuse you of what?” Oh, hey, Jeremy’s here now! The boy set down his tray of food and got into the seat across from Michael. Leaning forward, said teen stated, “Bein’ a punk, as per usual.” The two snickered a bit, while Rich just rolled his eyes, chuckling a bit himself. Even though he had a crush on Michael, it was fairly obvious that Jeremy and Michael were practically meant for each other. Though, they’ve both never said anything about their feelings for each other. It was so obvious but… Whatever, they’re weird, and Rich doesn’t feel like questioning the two of them.

Michael leaned back in his seat and he glanced over at the others at the table. They were all working together on a science project. Basically, they were working with the code of reality. Like, they’ve been setting up the coding of this reality, trying to figure out if it was a possible thing that could be altered. In most timelines, people would think this was insane or just simply impossible. However, in most timelines, superheroes don’t exist.

Hell yeah dude, they’ve got fucking superpowers and shit here! There are villains and heroes, but it’s sort of rare to get those powers. Some happen through accidents, some happen through science and technology, and some are just born with it! Plus, there’s also the fact that most people actually have some hidden power that they just haven’t unlocked yet, and some are also just… stronger than others.

For instance, Jeremy. The teen had the power of light, and with that came emotions. He could easily sense others’ emotions and alter them how he wanted, or just, control their emotions in general. Plus, he can just… get people to do what he wants, with the right wording. Seen Jessica Jones? Yeah, he’s like Kilgrave. Except nicer and cooler and not a villain.

There are smaller powers, too. Rich, for example, just has really thick skin. Not in the way that he’s not affected by insults, but rather he can’t be burnt. Fire doesn’t hurt him. Well, he also has a harder time actually getting hurt, but whatever. So, other than that, he just works with fire often. He always said that he thought the name ‘The Arsonist’ was pretty cool.

Other than them, there are a few others in their group with powers. Specifically, ones that they don’t really use that often, mainly because they’re a bit… Uh, something?

Jake has heightened senses, speed, and strength. Not by much, but still enough to make a fairly big difference in comparison to everyone else. Christine has some healing powers, able to heal any wound within just a few moments. It depends on how bad the wound is though. She’s actually pretty cool, and nice… Brooke has some weather powers. Water, electricity, et cetera. She doesn’t practice with it often; she’s scared of messing up the ACTUAL weather and making everyone hate her. Jenna can see into people’s knowledge and unlock things that they know. Pretty good at getting information and interrogating others— Though she doesn’t really want to do that. That’s like, a villain thing.

Chloe’s just good at technology and gathering intel. She has no real powers, but her knowledge and logic alone are enough. Seriously, she completed a calculus math test within 5 minutes. It had 30 questions on it! She is seriously insane. Then there’s Michael. Just… Michael Mell. He has no powers. Never have, never will. It makes him unique in comparison to all of his friends, but honestly? He feels like he’s just missing out on some bigger picture. It can get kinda depressing… One thing’s for certain: Michael’s normal and that’s all he ever will be. A loser.

Back to the project. They want to see if they can alter reality in any way with the use of lightning and technology. Chloe’s been typing up the code for a while, but she’s told them that it’s practically done. Tonight, there’s a storm. Like, a hopefully bad one. They need the lightning. With Brooke’s power of weather, she could alter all of it a bit so that the lightning strikes right where it needs to. Christine and Jake made a pylon that attached to the computer they were using, which would hopefully withstand the heat and electricity.

Once the lightning struck the pylon, they were hoping to type in codes to change things. Like, alter the atmosphere and weather and stuff. Kind of like a command console, but for real life. Pretty cool, right? They were all pretty excited to see if it would all work or not. If it did, this could be technology that even the highest ranking superheroes could find useful! Then their group would be famous for discovering it!

Michael was already getting himself hyped, and he smiled to himself, staring off into nothingness. He wouldn’t be a loser anymore. He’d be cool and… important and awesome… And everything would be—

“Hey, you hear that?” Jeremy was trying to get his attention now, and with a slight jolt of surprise, Michael turned his head to the other. “No, what?” He responded, tilting his head a bit in confusion. The teen pointed down the table at Chloe, who was looking at him expectantly.

She rolled her eyes and Michael flushed a bit in embarrassment; He zoned out and had missed everything that she’d just went over. Whoopsie. With a sigh, she repeated herself, “So, I’ve finished the coding for the project. However, there needs to be a person to man the computer. I was wondering if you wanted to be that person.” Oh. Woah. “W-Wait, what does that entail?” He’d want to know the details before he actually accepts possibly putting his life at risk. Not that he wasn’t fine with the idea of dying, but…

“Well,” She started, glancing at Brooke, who was sitting across from her, “It would mean that you have to add your coding to the computer, stand the closest to the computer, and if anything went wrong, we would enter specific coordinates in the code—Those are where you’d appear or end up at.”

Nodding, Michael was about to say it was fine by him, but he froze. If anything went wrong? “Uh—What do you mean, ‘if anything went wrong’? What could go wrong, exactly?” He asked, tilting his head in confusion and giving a small, nervous smile.

Chloe answered with, “Oh, nothing too bad. You might get shocked by lightning, transported to the digital plane, become a god of sorts, die, or become incredibly digitally fucked up.” Then she gave a reassuring smile. Michael just stared.

Leaning away a bit, he glanced at Jeremy. He was looking back at Chloe, mouth curled into a slight grimace. When the teen noticed Michael looking at him expectantly and nervous, he looked back, trying to look hopeful. The guy reached forward a bit, placing a hand on the other’s arm lightly. “Hey, Michael, don’t worry dude. The chances of any of that happening are like, a 1 in 100 chance.”

Michael shook his head and gave a slight, panicked look. “No, no, dude, you don’t understand,” He stammered, averting his eyes, “You KNOW how bad my luck is. It’s like I have a damn curse. If I’m not paying the utmost attention to what I’m doing, something bad WILL happen!” Jeremy just put his hand to the teen’s cheek, lifting his head so that they were both looking at each other in the eyes.

“Michael, it’s okay. You’re going to be just fine,” That smile was so believable and soft and… Fuck, okay, fine, he’s doing it. “Fuck, okay, fine, I’ll do it,” He stated, throwing his hands up in surrender and looking back down the table at Chloe. She gave a nod and grinned as she wrote something on the paper in front of her.

Brooke piped in, throwing in the comment to everyone at the table. “Okay, guys! Just remember to meet at the top of the Airspace tower today at 5 so we can set up for the storm tonight! Should be coming around 7 or so.” She paused as she gazed around at the others looking at her. Then, she put her hand in the center of the long table. Though he and Jeremy had to lean over pretty far, the two added their hands to the pile and joined into the cheer.

“Reality code, GO!”

———

It was 6:45 PM. Everything was ready to go, and everyone was prepared for the storm. It was already raining, and the brunt of it was getting closer. Michael was… Well, he was pretty fucking terrified. The teen was shaking, and he gulped as he watched the clouds overhead.

Something was going to go wrong today. He just knew it.

With a quick turn, he yelled to Chloe, “Are you sure everything’s okay?!” She was just making the final touches on his rescue code, so she was still clacking away on the keyboard of the computer. “Yes! It’ll be fine! Remember the passcode?” Chloe responded, turning her head to face Michael, and he quickly racked his brain for the code.

“Blue slushies, ones for the Ls and a hyphen between, all lowercase!” She nodded as he yelled, entering the passcode. That was what would rescue him, in case anything bad were to happen.

A hand was placed on his shoulder, and he jolted, turning to see Jake looking down on him. “Uh…” He started, but the taller teen just gave a small, reassuring smile and said, “Michael, it’ll be fine. You don’t need to worry.” Though he’d usually accept those words without any hesitance, he just couldn’t; not now.

“I-Y-Yeah, thanks, Jake…” He mumbled, looking downwards and shrugging lightly. He raised a hand to his arm, rubbing it in nervousness. Michael just couldn’t shake that damned feeling. It was lingering there, haunting his mind and causing him to panic under his facade of looking… Panicked. Okay, maybe he doesn’t have a facade, he seriously just looks panicked.

The storm was getting closer. The lightning was brighter and the thunder was louder, and everyone was running around checking if things were all set up, as they should be. The sky was so… So gray and black and yellow at the horizon. The Airspace tower was big in itself, too; designed to have direct contact with the sky and any sky forces. The top of it was usually enclosed by a large dome, which could open up and let the roof be completely exposed to the elements, which was… Where it was right now.

Jenna and Christine were holding down some equipment, Jake and Rich were going around and giving motivational support and friendly chatter, just to get people off the edge. Brooke was watching the weather above, eyes closed as she focused in, waiting for the perfect bolt, which would be approaching rather soon.

Jeremy was like Michael, just waiting. Or, maybe, he’s using his powers of emotion and trying to calm others. Chloe was watching the code on the computer seeing if it was all correct one final time. So that meant Michael was doing absolutely nothing of importance. Huh. This isn’t unusual, haha… Kinda depressing though, how nothing he’s doing currently matters that much. Well, then again, all he’s doing is panicking. Whatever.

Checking his phone, he saw the time was at 6:54. Almost there… And no problems yet. Maybe it WOULD be okay. Maybe nothing bad would happen. Maybe his gut was just lying to him; it wouldn’t be the first time, but… Then again, when WAS the first time? Fuck. Whatever, just… Ignore the feeling and act like everything was okay. It was so not.

Brooke suddenly yelled, “WIND!” Yeah, there was a lot of wind, why is this such an observation—Oh, woah, that’s why. There was a huge gust of wind, one that made Michael have to take a step back to hold himself against it. Even then he still felt pushed back a bit, grimacing as he held against it—Plus he had to hold his glasses against his face in a not-uncomfortable way. With a small glance at the others, he felt dread rise in his stomach.

Jenna and Christine were freaking out. The pylon! The pylon was disconnected from the computer, and the connector was about to blow off the end of the building! Shit, it was like a wire, so obviously it was fairly flimsy and loose. 6:57. Oh god, oh god, he had to get that wire.

Though the wind pressed against him, he made his way to the billowing connector, which was near the edge of the roof. If he was pushed… Paling, Michael pushed himself away from that thought and focused on the wire. He needed the perfect moment to grab it… It just wouldn’t come close enough! Shit! He’d need to jump. Oh god, he’d need to jump.

The others shouted from in front of him, telling him to stop, asking what he was doing, everything—God, no, just pay attention. Don’t let your luck get you. He stared at the wire with squinted eyes, focusing on it. The wind was heavy. He had to be careful. Just… Reach it… Just… 

With a small boost, Michael found himself with the wire in his grasp—He smiled, even when his feet hit the roof’s edge. The teen felt himself slip a bit, leaning backward slightly, but crouched and propelled himself forward. It was a fight against the wind, but hey! He didn’t die! And it was 6:59! Wait. The lightning.

Michael quickly made his way to the computer, connector in hands. Everything was so loud and everyone was standing so close and shouting and he couldn’t focus on anyone—He just stared at the computer and plugged in the connector.

As soon as he plugged it in, he heard a yell. He couldn’t tell whose voice that was, but he knew what they were talking about. It was like a reaction to the connector. His hand was stuck on the computer and—

The loudest noise he’d ever heard erupted from all around him as his body flared in a white, hot pain, the bolts of electricity coming all around him as he screamed. Everything was burning, his whole body, his mind, his hands, everything hurt.

He couldn’t move. He’s burning, he’s on fire, he’s going to die. He can’t even hear his own goddamned screams, everything was so loud and everything hurt—And that wasn’t the last of it.

Michael FELT himself just fading away from existence, a pixelation coming over his whole body as he screamed in agony, never stopping. Slowly but surely, he was disappearing. Everything hurt. Everything BURNED. This was nothing he’d ever experienced; it flared inside of him and all he could feel was misery and fire in it’s highest form.

Then it was black. No one could say exactly what happened. He was gone. Just… gone.

And there wouldn’t be a way to get him back.

 

Because there was someone else they saved instead; someone they’d never wanted to see again.

Once he saw the opportunity, he took it, not even bothering with the person who’d just entered the digital plane. Sure, he wondered for a split second if he saw him, but that wasn’t of any importance right now. Freedom was the only thing he wanted. Freedom was the only thing he needed.

With a small smile of pure joy, he exited. It was nothing like what he’d expected, nothing like what happened when he almost died. They’d never be able to get rid of him that easily. Jeremy would never be able to get rid of him that easily.

Quickly glancing back before entirely exiting the digital plane, he stared back at the boy that just came through. Though he couldn’t hear him, being unconscious and all, he whispered in a devious tone,

“Goodbye, Michael Mell, and welcome to the real world, Squip.”


	2. I was always playing the part,

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A year has passed.

The base wasn’t anything… Terrible, but it wasn’t exactly the most extravagant either. A modern look to it, while also rather simple, was exactly the kind of place they were needing. A year after the Reality Code incident, they’d all graduated and moved on, though the team still stuck together. Everyone was with them but Michael.

Jeremy gazed off at Rich, who was holding a slice of pizza, as he walked back into the main area. Imagine… Like, the circle couch thing in Teen Titans. The original. Not that Go! crap. Basically, Jeremy was sitting on the end couch, staring blankly at the other guy.

Confused, Rich sat down on the next cushion, looking at Jeremy while eating the slice of pizza. “Dude, whatcha lookin at?” He had the decency to wait until he swallowed the bite, at least… With a sigh, Jeremy looked downwards and said quietly, “Thinking about… Yknow.”

Nodding, the other stated in a light tone, “Hey, don’t worry! We’ll get him back! Me and Jenna have been doing everything we can to get him with us again…” Jeremy didn’t smile. Rich frowned at this, glancing to the side, then opened his mouth to say something, which the other promptly cut off with his own words.

“Rich, what’s the point?” Rich gazed at him, brows furrowed in shock. “He’s gone. It’s been a whole year since then. Do you know what tomorrow is?” The other was about to respond, and again, Jeremy cut him off. “It’s the anniversary of the Reality Code Incident. It’s the anniversary of his disappearance. It’s the anniversary of his—” He stopped abruptly, feeling tears well up in his eyes. Averting his eyes, lip quivering, Jeremy brought his legs up on the couch, holding onto them tightly. Something of a sitting fetus position.

“He’s not dead, Jeremy. Stop telling yourself that, he’s not—” Rich reached out hesitantly, trying to place a hand on Jeremy’s knee, but the other quickly pulled away. “And how the hell do you know that, Rich?! How could you even SAY that to-to ME?! You weren’t his best friend, you didn’t KNOW him like I did!” He snapped, anger flashing in his eyes as he sobbed, the waterworks like a continuous stream down his face now.

Drawing back slowly, Rich turned his gaze downwards, unable to see his friend’s face at this point. The guy mumbled out, before taking another bite of his pizza, “I know he’s not dead because he wouldn’t give up. He wouldn’t give up on his friends and—” He tilted his head up, now regarding Jeremy with a stern expression, “He wouldn’t give up on you. But you? Jeremy, you’ve given up on HIM.”

Those last words held the guy in a trance. He… No, Michael is DEAD! How could he… But how did they know he was—Dead? Maybe… Maybe Rich was right. Maybe Michael WASN’T dead. He just needs to hope.

In a moment, Jeremy went forward and wrapped his arms around Rich, crying into the other as he tried to apologize for snapping at him. Rich patted his back, hushing him. “Jeremy, it’s okay. It’s not your fault, we’re all stressed out right now. It’s okay, it’s alright,” He murmured, closing his eyes and rubbing circles into the other’s back, trying to calm him down.

They stayed like that for a few moments longer, until Jeremy eventually pulled back, sniffling as he wiped the tears away from his eyes, feeling fairly pitiful for letting himself do all that… “T-thanks, Rich. I r-really appreciate that. I’m sorry that I-I snapped at you and stuff…” He stammered, trailing off as he blinked, unable to hold eye contact with the other.

Rich just smiled lightly and said, “Listen, man, it’s okay. Seriously. I just… I hate seeing that you and the others have given up on Michael. We need to keep hoping! We don’t actually know if he’s dead or not, and… I just, I hate it.” Jeremy nodded, seeing his point.

He couldn’t get so worked over this-- Rich only wanted to see Michael again, and Jeremy wanted to as well. As long as someone had the will to keep hoping, why should he try to stop them? There was no point to that. The best he could do right now was give Rich support. Maybe they’d be right in the end. Maybe… Maybe they could get him back. Somehow, someday.

Rich took another bite of the pizza, then brought a hand to his chin thoughtfully. “Hey, after I finish this, wanna go get ice cream or something? Might help take the edge off a bit, y’know?” He offered, smiling at the other, a bit of pizza on his teeth. Very classy.

Jeremy snorted, blinking at Rich. His eyes were still a little wet, and it should be pretty obvious he had been crying, but hey, maybe some nice, cold, sweet ice cream would be good for him. Nodding lightly, the guy smiled and stood up. “Yeah, that-that’d be nice. I’ll go get ready,” He replied, causing Rich to grin widely as he took another bite of pizza. “Alwigh’ dude! Lemme finish thish, though.” Aaaand there he goes, talking with food in his mouth.

Ah, Rich. You never cease to amaze.

—

“No! No, nonono NO! NO!” Banging on the floor of the black expanse didn’t seem to be getting anywhere, but where else was he supposed to go? He’d tried running everywhere, trying not to pay much attention to his burning back. Well, it wasn’t LITERALLY burning, but it felt like it was on fire because the pain was so fucking intense and draining.

Tears started welling up in the guy’s eyes, and he muttered out a weak, “Fuck! Fuck, fuck, why…?!” He was kneeling down and grimaced. blocked was horrible. He was stuck in this—This black expanse with weird green lines of code and pixels and—and he was completely trapped.

There was nothing he could do, nowhere he could go… And he was entirely alone. He’d seen no one else here, no one at all besides HIM. It felt so WRONG. He was lost. Michael was entirely lost.

With a sigh, he said to himself in a stern tone, “Okay. Okay, don’t panic, it’s okay. Think—How could you get out of here? This is… The digital plane, right? Okay, okay so there must be SOME code I could find or, or MAKE and I would be free! Simple as that! Okay…” He stood up and looked around. Nothing. Just code.

Actually… Michael stepped forward, reaching out to the code. When he touched it, he saw a flash of something. A… Toaster? What? To his right was another strand of code. Touching that one gave him the image of a refrigerator. What…

“The Reality Code. This all must be… Reality, but DIGITAL. So if this is all digital then…” So he grabbed onto more code around him. It appeared as though he were in a kitchen. There were cabinets and a tile floor and… This is so weird. It’s like he’s there but he’s… Not. Oh! And the lines must be the outline of the house, sort of like CGI! Now that he actually examined it all, it did appear as though the code took the shape of blocks and sinks and… This is so fucking weird.

Wait, could this mean he could find humans, too? What does he look like then? Is he just air, to others? Or maybe a hallucination? Maybe… Michael walked through what he assumed was a coded wall of the house, and squinted. Okay, okay. So… There was a tall line of coding, with little tiny codes at the top of it, and spread around on other lines of coding that branched out from the main line. Tree. This is a tree! He held onto the ‘trunk’ of it, obtaining the information about it in a split second. Woah. It hadn’t been watered in 3 days, was 58 years old, and a birch. That’s… Crazy. He could learn more about it if he wanted, but he decided not to.

Woah! Wait, what if he could edit coding? Like, hang on, is there a way he could… Michael reached forward into a blank spot, trying to make claws with his hands. Is this like, something on a computer? Click and drag and a place to put text would be right there? Eh. He attempted this again, though it didn’t work.

Okay… What if he… Uh, WAIT! He ran back into the ‘house’ and grabbed the toaster’s code. Well, he tried to, but ended up just reaching through the code instead. Okay, well, maybe… Could he just… He pinched the edge of the code, and dragged to the opposite corner. Then he pulled so that his little box covered all of the code. Yes! A box! There was a light blue, transparent box around all the code, like a highlight on a computer.

Okay, now that he had it highlighted, Michael needed to figure out how to copy it “Uh… Control C?” Nothing. “Copy?” Nothing again. “Uh…” He put a hand on the box, and it pulsated lightly as he touched it, but he couldn’t put his hand through. Furrowing his brows, Michael grabbed the box with his other hand and pulled. Woah! A whole block of coding came out, and his highlight disappeared.

He had a toaster in his arms! Holy shit! Holy shit, he made a toaster! Well, copy and pasted one, technically. With a small, giddy laugh, he carried the toaster he created through the code of the house—Or, tried to. Instead, he hit the house and stumbled backward. Well fuck, okay… Above the now slightly dented code of the house was what looked like a different patch of code. A window…

Impulsively, Michael chucked the toaster through the window of the house, and the code soared right through it, causing little tiny bits of code to shatter and land on the ground. “Uh, sorry person who lives here,” He apologized out loud, stepping through the house again and grabbing the toaster that was now propped up against the tree from earlier.

Cracking his knuckles, Michael decided it was now time to figure out how to edit the code of reality.

———

Jeremy had his hands tucked into his jacket pockets as he walked with Rich to the small ice cream shop. It was one of the types where you just stand outside and wait for them to finish your ice cream in their little workplace.

It was 18-year-old dusk, the sun setting in the distance, casting shades of pink, orange, and purple against the night sky, which was devoid of clouds, giving you a perfect view of the stars that started to show faintly. As the wind picked up a bit, Jeremy felt himself smile and close his eyes, reveling in how nice this was.

He opened his eyes again and looked over at Rich. He too seemed to be having a pleasant time now, staring over at the city in the distance. Since they’d graduated from high school, they decided to form a team of superheroes. They didn’t QUITE have a name yet, but as long as they were together, that was enough.

The 18 year-old shrugged his thoughts away and said, “You know? I don’t think I ever thought I’d see the day where we were a true team of superheroes.” Rich blinked and tucked his hands in his shorts pockets. He held his tongue for a moment, as if thinking of the right way to respond. “I think I did. Like, I just had a feeling in my chest, y’know? I mean, we thought of our hero names already… Even though some sound kinda like villain names,” He replied, letting out a small chuckle as he did so.

“Yeah, what a great hero, ‘The Arsonist’. Totally gonna save the day with those… Fire powers,” Rich grinned, giving Jeremy a look, causing the other to snicker and punch Rich’s shoulder in a friendly manner. 

“Yeah yeah, okay,” Jeremy started, flashing Rich a look of smugness, “How about The Light? Come on now, that’s like, a LITERAL superhero name.”

Rolling his eyes, the other mumbled, “Yeah, sure, whatever dude.”

Within a short amount of time, the two of them reached the ice cream shop. After a quick glance at their board of flavors, the two boys got their favorites. Rich’s was orange cream, while Jeremy picked a swirl of chocolate and vanilla. Waffle cones in hand, they made their way to a nearby park to sit down and eat.

It was a peaceful silence between the two of them, looking off at a small pond in the park, the moon shining down on it now and making the water shimmer and sparkle, glowing light tones. It really was beautiful at this time, even if the city lights blocked out most of the stars that were available to see. That didn’t matter too much though—As long as the night was dark and the moon was beautiful, as per usual, everything was alright. 

As he looked out at the pond, he couldn’t help but feel a pang of depression, something that he’d kept under the surface, though it began ebbing at him slowly and surely. He couldn’t keep the thoughts out of his head, the ones that tore at him and his emotions, the part that just kept up hope, even though he tried to smash it down.

Michael would have loved this. Michael always loved the peaceful, dark nights, where the moon glowed in the sky, to the point where you wouldn’t need streetlights to cast away the darkness that grew on the streets. Michael would have loved getting triple chocolate ice cream with him and Rich, the cool feeling like the blue raspberry slushies he’d always get at 7/11, singing ‘Freeze Your Brain’ whenever Jeremy was with him, grinning widely and giggling as he took the slushie from the cashier at the counter.

Michael would have loved being here, right now, with Jeremy; sitting on the bench and laying his head on Jeremy’s shoulder, closing his eyes and smiling lightly as he curled into his friend. The slight breeze would pick up his hair and lift it, small hairs straying from the group of them. Jeremy would lean into the other too and wrap an arm around him, keeping their warmth together and feeling his chest get lighter and warmer, happiness flooding over him.

Now though, he didn’t notice the tears that fell down his face, a watery trail now making his sadness obvious. “I-I miss him so much. I m-miss Michael so-so much,” He whispered, sniffling as he choked out the words, gazing downwards with lidded eyes. He felt arms come around him and realized Rich was hugging him. This only made him bawl harder, not holding back now. The other rubbed his back and made soft, shushing noises, trying to get him to calm down.

Jeremy couldn’t though. His mind dwelled on Michael, and the only thing he could feel was depression, loneliness, and pain. He missed him so much, and now? It was too late to say he loved him. It was too late to say goodbye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHH ok i apologize that chapters take a while to be written, I just have very odd bursts of motivation and ideas :'D
> 
> I hope you guys like it though! I promise later chapters will get bigger and more interesting!!
> 
> Hmu @dreaminq-art on tumblr, too! I love reviews, art, etc! Have a good day now!

**Author's Note:**

> uAGH OKAY SO. Yeah I thought this would be a cool idea to write, an AU and all... I HAVE DESIGNS FOR THE HEROES AND VILLAINS IN MIND! I will work on references for those soon enough!! In the meantime, I really hope you guys like this idea!! I'll actually try to keep this one updated and the like! :D Have a nice day!
> 
> This may also be uploaded on Fanfiction.net, so don't be surprised if you see it there!
> 
> My personal tumblr is @dreaminq-art if you wanna hit me up!


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